Reflections on Hosea 13

 Hosea 13  (Contemporary English Version)

1. When your leaders spoke, everyone in Israel trembled and showed great respect. But you sinned by worshiping Baal, and you were destroyed.
   
2. Now you continue to sin by designing and making idols of silver in the shape of calves. You are told to sacrifice to these idols -- yes, even to kiss them.
   
3. And so, all of you will vanish like the mist or the dew of early morning, or husks of grain in the wind or smoke from a chimney.
   
4. I, the LORD, have been your God since the time you were in Egypt. I am the only God you know, the only one who can save.
   
5. I took care of you in a thirsty desert.
   
6. I fed you till you were satisfied, then you became proud and forgot about me.
   
7. Now I will attack like a lion, ambush you like a leopard,
   
8. and rip you apart like a bear robbed of her cubs. I will gnaw on your bones, as though I were a lion or some other wild animal.
   
9. Israel, you are done for. Don't expect help from me.
   
10. You wanted a king and rulers. Where is your king now? What cities have rulers?
    
11. In my anger, I gave you a king; in my fury, I took him away.
    
12. Israel, your terrible sins are written down and stored away.
    
13. You are like a senseless child who refuses to be born at the proper time.
    
14. Should I, the LORD, rescue you from death and the grave? No! I call death and the grave to strike you like a plague. I refuse to show mercy.
    
15. No matter how much you prosper more than the other tribes, I, the LORD, will wipe you out, just as a scorching desert wind dries up streams of water. I will take away your precious treasures.
    
16. Samaria will be punished for turning against me. It will be destroyed in war-- children will be beaten against rocks, and pregnant women will be ripped open.

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The tribe of Ephraim in Israel had been prominent among the tribes, but they had also led the way into Baal worship. This took Ephraim from prominence to death. It was Ephraim's prosperity, prosperity that had come from the Lord, that took her away from the Lord. The people had become satisfied and proud in it and forgot the Lord.

Humility and submission seem hard for us to come by. We will resort to them when we feel weak and defeated, but once we feel strong and prosperous we shed them. When prosperous we begin to feel self-sufficient and forget the source of our prosperity, thinking we have done it ourselves. We begin to think the idea of God is only an allusion of the weak.

Therefore, Ephraim would be like the "morning mist," like "the early dew that vanishes," like "chaff blown from a threshing floor," like "smoke from a window." All of these analogies speak of being transitory. Ephraim would vanish as does the morning mist, etc. The Lord would be "like a lion to them," like a "bear robbed of her cubs." He would devour them and they would be gone.

"Ephraim's guilt is preserved; his sin is stored up." (13:12) God had allowed Ephraim time to repent and turn away from his sin, but that period had passed and the time had arrived for God's wrath. God had given Israel a king when they pleaded for one, though He did so in anger because they were not satisfied with the Lord as their king. But their kings had led them further and further away from the Lord and now God was would remove their king and ask, "Where now is your king?"

Israel would now bear her guilt and would fall by the sword.